Category Archives: culture

I just read a brief post on Business Insider focusing on the research of  Moria Burke an Associate Professor at University of Michigan.  She has been researching they way parents and kids interact on Facebook. Her findings are very interesting:

Children ages 13-17 are more likely to friend their parents

Children between the ages of  17-25 are less likely to friend their parents

This trend begins to reverse at 25.

Girls communicate more often with their parents than boys.

You can check out the Business Insider Article here. You can check out Moria’s research here.

In her research she also did a word cloud based on gender, it is very interesting to look at the words parents and kids use with each other. We need more research like this as more and more of our interactions are online . In my work with teenagers I consistently hear complaints about their parents getting on Facebook, but it makes you wonder why they are complaining if they are friending their parents. What are those complaints about? I wonder if it is about having to show them how to use the technology? Or if they feel obligated in some way to friend their parents?

I heard a sobering report on NPR. It was another report in what seems to be an endless stream of reports on Cyber Bullying. However, this report was a little different, it was  by a 16 year old named Temitayo Fagbenle. Her age added an interesting perspective to the report. Inaddition the teenagers she interviewed seemed to be more candid and open to sharing their true thoughts and feelings.  For those of us who love and care for teenagers it is an important report to hear. Here is a link to the audio version as well as the text.

This makes me wonder:

How we can help teenagers realize this type of behavior is wrong?

How we can promote safe online behavior?

How do we deal with this when students in our youth ministry participate in this type of behavior?

I came across this short blurb this morning you can read it here. But according to the article two teenagers in California drugged their parents inorder to use the internet after 10pm. Details are still emerging, but it really makes you wonder what is going with these two that they would go to such lengths to access the internet? It makes me wonder how will the internet continue to affect future generations, and what is the church doing to teach control, and boundaries? I think it is so important for the church and parents to help our teenagers work through these uncharted waters.

I thought this was a really interesting interview with Sean Kelly author of “All Things Shining”.  I have not read the book, but in this interview he did an excellent job of articulating a cultural shift that has taken place; in which many people have traded truly sacred moments (church, worship, communion) for lesser versions of the sacred (sporting events, concerts, etc.) .  I would challenge you to consider this cultural trend particularly in relation to the way many of our parents and students understand High School and Club sports.